Do I need to build my projects without a framework/library to understand more? - <AUTHOR> Hi. Tech newbie here, although I've had an account here for some time.
I've been having struggles starting my projects and sticking to it till I finish, especially when I try to use frameworks like React. Working with state in React is one thing I still struggle with. When a library like Redux comes in, I get a lot more caught up with mastering the framework/library before I start my project.
Since I didn't have much experience making projects  without a framework,(e.g did not work with DOM much before React either, I only had a few projects using a basic HTML/CSS/JS file), do I need to focus on projects without a framework to help with my understanding of React and/or any other framework/library? <comment><USER2> For what it's worth I'd say forget learning any framework, learn the language first. That's where so many people go wrong.

Just forget frameworks, they make things a LOT easier but they really don't help you learn the fundamentals.

Once you've got the fundamentals down, i.e you know the language and can do whatever you need without a framework, then you can move on and learn one and for that I'd do a complete structured learning course, something like [https://www.fullstackreact.com/](https://www.fullstackreact.com/) then once you've mastered the language, and then mastered the framework, you're good to go. Otherwise you're just going to flounder and produce crappy code.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks a ton!</comment></comment>


Bjork, Icelandic Singer and…Venture Capitalist? - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/bjork-icelandic-singer-and-venture-capitalist/?ref=technology <comment><USER2> That is the fun thing about Iceland and its people; everyone has 2-3 wildly disparate jobs, and they're just as good at all of them. No-one in Iceland thinks it's odd that a musician should also be a VC.

Tho' they have deep, deep structural problems with their economy; compared to the Icelanders the British were _sensible_ with credit. I'd wish them luck sorting it out but they don't need it, they'll have their act together long before we do.

<comment><USER3> Iceland needs some serious answers to some serious problems. This is PR fluff.

Edit: I had written something much more critical before, but maybe Iceland needs the morale boost. It's unclear to me how $800k is going to save Iceland's economy through feminine values and environmentalism, but maybe it could work. However, I think it's more likely that Iceland will simply be forced to compromise and pay its debt for the next several decades selling energy and toxic dumps to smelt aluminum. I hope that they can do so without sacrificing their environment and culture entirely.

I already pity the scabs the heavy foreign industry will be pressuring to emigrate to Iceland...

<comment><USER2> They're an optimistic and resourceful people. They'll be over this before we in the UK are (as we are neither these days).

I'd love to emigrate to Iceland. They have the great policy of requiring immigrants to take on Icelandic names, I've wasted considerable time looking at the list and wondering what mine would be :-)

I think it's more likely they'll get loans from a coalition of Scandinavian nations and perhaps forfeit some political/economic independence rather than allow the predators in.

<comment><USER4> > They have the great policy of requiring immigrants to take on Icelandic > names

Nonsense. I've been there for 3 years, begged to be called Stebbie because it sounded more like my name than when they try to pronounce Esteban (they always stress the first syllable), to no avail.

Truly great place to live, though.

<comment><USER2> Are you a citizen? If so, was it straightforward?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> All that I read in this article was: Slam dunk for economic hitmen in Iceland! Ding ding, here come the smelters!

<comment><USER3> MacGyver! Save Iceland!

Ok, what do I have?

Girl power, Gaia worship, $800k, and Bjork. You have one year to make 61 billion dollars, and you can't exploit any natural resources.

Oh God...

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> >"If the money for the next aluminum smelters would go into supporting these businesses, we would be in a much better position in Iceland in five years' time, both economically and also just image-wise or dignity-wise,"

I won't comment on the image and dignity aspects of this statement, that's not my specialty. However, the idea that green tech will be an economic winner is still magical thinking, a largely unproven assumption. Most green tech is still a money pit, and near 100% of it would be if not for massive government subsidies. And if you're not eligible for US or European subsidies, then you're probably not going to make money in green tech.

<comment><USER2> Reykjavik runs on geothermal power. Green tech is very real in Iceland. Of course, it may not work so well where the geology isn't so suitable...

<comment><USER3> "Green" is subjective. Iceland is attractive to industry because \- it's largely unpopulated \- it's on the ocean and near both Western Europe and the Eastern US \- stable and modern government \- energy is cheap

Also, Iceland has not only geothermal potential, but hydroelectric potential.

In short, Iceland is an potential industrial wonderland ---and all powered "green" tech, too. However, just because one isn't burning coal doesn't mean that industry is consequence free. The problem isn't environmental as I understand it, it's cultural. Icelanders pride themselves as an extremely educated, egalitarian nation. They don't want their nation polluted with the socioeconomics of heavy industry including unskilled labor, pollution, obvious social classes, foreign industrial oligarchs, and, yes, the non-Icelandic. To them, the heavy industry is tacky and crass, just like how McDonald's advertising on elementary school textbooks would be to us. Both are examples of "economical effectiveness," but neither are widely appreciated by people who would know better to choose otherwise.

<comment><USER4> "Green" is not only about the energy sources themselves. There are lots of viable business opportunities that don't involve screwing with the landscape and environment.

For example, a MMO that will soon have as many paying subscribers as Iceland has inhabitants:

<http://www.eve-online.com>

How much heavy industry do you really need to support a country of ~300.000 inhabitants, with a culture of work, integrity, ambition and optimism, abundance of geothermal energy sources, a healthy fishing industry and a touristically attractive landscape?

<comment><USER3> Off-topic: have you played EVE? I've heard that it's an extremely engaging game with a realistic game world, but that to play demands your life full time for a year.

<comment><USER4> I've worked in Eve. 'Realistic' is not the word I'd use (it's a science fiction setting after all,) but it is indeed more a freeform and deep experience than many glorified level grinds out there, and it's true that it can absorb any amount of time if you let it.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


In Court, Facebook Blames Users for Destroying Their Own Right to Privacy - <AUTHOR> https://theintercept.com/2019/06/14/facebook-privacy-policy-court/ <comment><USER2> I think this article misrepresents the actual issue here, but also the FB lawyer's argument, as described in the article, is also missing the point.

Focusing on the number of people being told is a red herring; what matters is the expectation of privacy per se, which is another way of saying, how likely do I think it is that the N people I'm sharing this with will share it with someone outside this group? Or, more properly, how likely do I think it is that someone OTHER than the N people immediately present will get this information?

If the CEO of a big company sends an email marked "confidential" to 10,000 employees, each of whom has a contract requiring them to not share insider information with people outside the company, I think that's a pretty solid expectation of privacy even if the number of people involved is large. One way to think of it is: would the police need a warrant to intercept that email? I'd be shocked if even the FB lawyer said that they would not.

On the other hand, if I'm meeting with just one person, but that meeting is in a public place like a cafe, then I can't reasonably say that I'd expect that meeting to be private. The police could put an undercover officer at the table next to me, transcribing everything I said.

So the true question is not whether you need to have 1, or 10, or 100 friends that you share information with in order to no longer have an expectation of privacy; the question is, to the people USING Facebook (and not the company), did they think they were sending a communication like an email, where they were specifying recipients and only those recipients would see it? Or did they think they were participating in a public forum, where who knows who could be listening?

</comment><comment><USER3> "We believe that everyone around the world deserves good privacy controls." \- Mark Zuckerberg

"There is no privacy interest, because by sharing with a hundred friends on a social media platform, which is an affirmative social act to publish, to disclose, to share ostensibly private information with a hundred people, you have just, under centuries of common law, under the judgment of Congress, under the SCA, negated any reasonable expectation of privacy." \- Orin Snyder (Lawyer representing Facebook)</comment>


Early 2011 MacBook Pros Are Dropping Like Flies, Heat Issues To Blame - <AUTHOR> http://www.cultofmac.com/262861/early-2011-macbook-pros-dropping-like-flies-heat-issues-blame

<comment><USER2> Had to replace my logic board in October or so. It's not related to heavy load. I don't play games, at all, don't watch full screen youtube videos, use much flash, etc. From what most users in the Apple support forum can guess it's bad solder, some have had moderate success rebelling. I lucked out (used loosely) and Apple offered a flat $300 depot repair.

Based on the forum posts, it's not just early 2011, but most of 2011. Basically any machine with that GPU model.

If my machine was 4 years old I might be less irritated, but it was just over 2 when the board died, and from reading the forum, the rate of failure is increasing lately. If it was just me, sure things happen, but clearly there's something larger at play, and i really do hope apple addresses it.

</comment><comment><USER3> The GPU in my mid-2011 15" MBP died just before Christmas (symptom was vertical bars in the display, and then random boot failures) Street price of the used laptop: About $500. Cost of a new system board would have been $579. Luckily for me, it was still under AppleCare warranty.

I never gamed on this laptop - it was purely a productivity machine, running Pages, Parallels, etc., usually with an external 24" monitor.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ive been having these issues too -

Here is my experience...

\- I am from the UK so we are covered under the EU consumer laws, more info here -> [http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory- warranty/](http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/) I bought my Macbook Pro 2011 17" with the 6750M GPU in April 2011 from BestBuy UK.

\- In 2012 BestBuy shut down operations in the UK

\- In January 2014 I started experiencing this defect. System halts with striped lines ect.

\- I contacted Apple care to ask if I would be eligible under this program, they told me that since BestBuy had shut down they would honour the extended warranty should it be diagnosed as a manufacturing fault.

\- I booked an appointment at the Apple Store (Bristol Cabot Circus) to have the laptop tested. They confirmed a GPU fault and told me that Apple wasn't responsible for upholding the extended warranty. I told them I would get back in contact with Apple care as this contradicted what I had been told before.

\- I spoke to a Apple Care Senior Technical Support Advisor at AppleCare again and he told me that the store was wrong and do not deal with these niche cases as often. He enquired about the test that was run on my laptop and told me that they still needed to confirm if this was a general fault or a manufacturing fault. This I have been told can not be done at the Apple Store since it was not bought from there (both I and him found this very unusual).

\- I was told I would need to book in a 'Consumer Law Claim' test at a company called Western Computer in Bristol. If this test confirmed a valid consumer law issue I would not be liable to pay the fee for the test of £78.00 and the hardware repair would be carried out for free. However if it indicated a general fault I would have to pay this myself. Before having this test run I wanted to ask what was involved and how one distinguishes a general fault from a manufacturing fault. I got a vague reply that indicated the test was software based which didn't give me much confidence that this test would throw the "error code" that was required for a consumer law repair.

\- As of now I am waiting to see how this plays out, it's hit the tech news now and I am hoping just like in 2008 and 2010 there will be a class action lawsuit that will save me all this hassle. I don't think I will get the test run at this time as I want to save myself the expense. I'll keep this updated with my progress.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How can a non-degree programmer show their skill? - <AUTHOR> I'm a Chemical Engineer by degree, but Ive been programming since I was 17. 10 years later, I have a full stack app, playstore apps, etc...
If I have an opportunity for an interview, I can prove my abilities, but even my internal company hiring wont interview me because I dont have a degree in electrical/computer engineering.
Any idea how I can build a resume that shows my programming experience rather than my past work experience? <comment><USER2> Build a side project demonstrating use of all the skills you have obtained.

That's the easiest way. I've worked with about 5-6 people with Chemistry degress (Undergrad, Master's, & PhD) that ended up in software development. So you shouldn't have a worry, just hit all the bullet points.

Find 10 jobs you're interested in, look at their skill requests (required & preferred). Make a list of those skills and for the top 10 make sure you've got them understood as to the best of your ability.

Good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> I have this ready to go, and I know I can show my abilities in person/over the phone. I even mention the name of my apps on my resume.

But getting that first interview seems hard since they are looking for the degree.

<comment><USER2> You have a degree, and a difficult one at that. If an employer can't see that you have the skills regardless to your "proper" degree, you likely don't want to work there.

Talk to recruiters as well, they can sometimes skip the bullshit.

You'll just have to tough through it until you get your first practical experience, then it likely won't ever cause you an issue again.

<comment><AUTHOR> Your right, I did have some success with a recruiter. And I also believe that if a process does not allow flexibility, they arent a company worth working for.

Still looking for resume tips btw. But will be making more attempts through recruiters.

<comment><USER2> For a resume tip, all I have on mine are these sections

Experience, Education, Skills, Detailed Experience, and Other Experience (foreign languages).

For yours I'd order it based on what you're trying to sell, which are your skills. So

Name / Contact info

Skills (specific languages, environments, OSes, other tools/frameworks)

Experience (list your projects here as well)

Education just put something like: B.S. Chemistry University of Wherever UniTownHere

Detailed Experience (elaborate like crazy since your resume isn't long)

Other Experience (things you do that are interesting in your opinion)

Oh, if you can also write a good generic cover letter you can update per application. This will show your good communication skills and show your desire to work in this industry, it's your chance to sell yourself. Be concise but let them know you'll give it your all to make both the company and yourself successful.

Good luck! I'm sure it will work out.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Favourite books? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> The Bible.

Escape From Reason (Francis Schaeffer). Why modern thought is the way it is.

An Infamous Army (Georgette Heyer). Regency romance combined with a fabulous account of the Battle of Waterloo.

The C Programming Language (Kernighan & Ritchie). So clearly written that I picked up C over a long weekend - without a compiler to try it out on! The only thing I didn't understand was argc and argv.</comment>


Anaconda Peter Wang Stepping Into CEO Role - <AUTHOR> https://www.anaconda.com/anaconda-enters-new-chapter/ <comment><USER2> From the article: "Today I am excited to announce that I am stepping into the role of CEO at Anaconda..."

Stepping _into_, not stepping down.

<comment><AUTHOR> Corrected. Sorry for any confusion caused.</comment></comment>


Google Chrome Rejects Google AdSense Page as Unsecure - Screenshot - <AUTHOR> http://ryanspoon.com/blog/2008/10/03/i-love-google-chrome-but/ <comment><USER2> I just checked it out. Its still there.</comment>


Origins of Employer-Sponsored Health Care in the U.S. - <AUTHOR> http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/355/1/82?ijkey=4MnhqQBve7qv.&keytype=ref&siteid=nejm <comment><USER2> how much longer must this be debated? every year we debate, we spend more and get more sick

the experiment is over, single-payer wins. the global healthcare experiment is fifty years old. single-payer wins and the nations with single-payer have better balance sheets than those that don't. they're also healthier.

whats the point of experimenting further? what else is there to learn that will be of greater value than getting people healthy now?

healthcare is not a business. you care if other people are getting good healthcare. you don't you say? well, do you go to the movies periodically? better hope that person next to you doesn't have untreated TB, or something else nasty, otherwise you're dead and your own health coverage won't help...its only a billing system, not a cure-all. when people can't get sick from sharing the air in a room, i'll admit i don't care about the healthcare other people get.

and if single payer doesn't work, then lets get rid of it for the military, because thats how their system works.

saw a reference to milton friedman and his thought on healthcare today on HN. we're so dogmatic about being conservative capitalists that we cannot admit that those nations that have embraced friedman the most tightly are also the most indebted. USA, japan, etc. time to just admit that friedman was wrong, his teachings have destroyed at least two great western economies. the further away from friedman an industrial economy is, the less indebted it tends to be. how paradoxical is that...the nations that have rejected balls-on capitalism are showing better balance sheets than those that embraced it. live and learn</comment>


Stop writing For loops. Start using underscore. - <AUTHOR> http://www.joelhooks.com/blog/2014/02/06/stop-writing-for-loops-start-using-underscorejs/

<comment><USER2> I don't like using underscore or lodash for methods that are parts of the EcmaScript specifications. I prefer using native methods (i.e. `forEach`, `map`, etc..) and including a JS shim (like [https://github.com/es- shims/es5-shim](https://github.com/es-shims/es5-shim)) to monkey-patch legacy browsers.

And I know that these are just examples, but what is the point of writing:

      _.each(someArray, function(someThing) {
        doSomeWorkOn(someThing);
      })

when you can simply write:

      _.each(someArray, doSomeWorkOn);

<comment><AUTHOR> hey, good catch, I like it :>

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Stop using underscore. Start using lodash.

[http://lodash.com/](http://lodash.com/)

Faster and more complete.

</comment><comment><USER4> To those saying "Why bother when there is ES5?", don't forget Lo- Dash/Underscore are more than the handful of ES5 methods. They each contain well over 100 utility methods for everything from iterating arrays and objects, to templates, and even function composition.

A lib can offer leeway and enhancements over bare metal language APIs. For example, in Lo-Dash you can do callback shorthands like `_.every(buttons,'disabled')` instead of `buttons.every(function(button){return button.disabled});`.

Lo-Dash's methods are more consistent than shims and in many cases faster than their ES5 counterparts. Shims have to follow the language specification which means they have a lot more overhead than their Lo-Dash equivalents making them slower in older environments where performance is already an issue. Shims also fail to address engine issues like how IE<9 treats arrays like `[1, undefined, 3]` as sparse when no other engine does. Lo-Dash smooths over these issues by treating all arrays as dense and gets better performance in the process.

Utility libs, like Lo-Dash, can give you more consistency, generally better performance, and more features than their ES5 counterparts.

<comment><USER5> Another example is:

        _.forEach(array, function(item) {
          doSomething();
          if (condition) {
            // exits iteration early
            return false;
          }
        });

This is just not possible with native `Array#forEach` – you'd have to use a plain `for` loop with a conditional `break` statement instead, or rewrite your code to use `Array#some`.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Array.forEach() anyone? What's the deeper sense in superseding built-in features by libraries?

(I know there's IE, but ... what about just fixing Array.prototype.forEach for those? "if (!Array.prototype.forEach) Array.prototype.forEach = ...")

</comment><comment><USER7> This doesn't make much sense. I think this would only make sense if each and map were actual language constructs, like for example in Ruby, but in this case you're bringing in an entire library just for that and that's a bit gross and pointless.

<comment><USER8> But they are in Javascript! Both map and forEach were added in 2009 as part of ES5. Problem is they weren't supported in IE until IE9.

[http://kangax.github.io/es5-compat- table/](http://kangax.github.io/es5-compat-table/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I did a test at work. For a simple loop body, a for loop is much faster than .each. The reason is that function call is an expensive operation in Javascript.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you're writing games or rich animated consumer facing solutions, by all mean scratch out that marginal perf boost.

In reality, it hasn't been an issue. Trivial to profile and optimize _where required /needed_ vs standardizing on verbose, up front, YAGNI performance gains.

Lodash benchmarks must faster than underscore in a lot of areas, and addresses at least some of the perf issues while keeping the tasty sugar.</comment></comment>


Tell HN: The Bible is removed from Chinese online retailers - <AUTHOR> The Bible can no longer be found in the three main online retailers: Amazon, Taobao and Jindong. <comment><USER2> A quick search ("bible" on amazon.cn) suggests otherwise: [https://www.amazon.cn/dp/1473618940/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1...](https://www.amazon.cn/dp/1473618940/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522828379&sr=8-2&keywords=bible)

If you're sure that something interesting is happening, please provide a source.

<comment><USER3> Perhaps the OP meant that the Bible is not listed if you perform a web search somewhere inside China.</comment></comment>


Zero Carbon Manifesto - <AUTHOR> http://carbonmanifesto.org <comment><USER2> I've heard good things about pledges in terms of driving behavior change, but haven't seen any data myself. What might be the goal of this project?

Missed opportunity - they're not capturing email addresses of the 138 signatures so far.</comment>


Infinitec Infinite USB Memory Drive review - interesting concept - <AUTHOR> http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/25/infinitec-infinite-usb-memory-drive-review/

<comment><USER2> For tl;drs: wireless device pairs with your computer to stream files, identifies as a USB drive to whatever you plug it into. But it's buggy beta- quality nigh-crap disguised as a finished device.

Interesting idea indeed, but guaranteed to be less cool than it sounds like under even the _best_ production quality. Wireless is hardly plug-and-play at all times; to be reliable, you _must_ create your own network that it can connect to. Expecting to reliably run a network share through any random network is expecting friendly gnomes riding ponies to leap from that random network's routers and magically transfer your data for you.

</comment><comment><USER3> If the backing connection was to 3G this would be both massively cool and a massively bad idea. The bad part: wifi and mobile broadband are already a big potential security risk. A form factor in the shape of a USB drive would be hard to spot.

The good part: if they built this with 3G and used the cloud as the backing store, it could really be an infinite USB drive!

<comment><USER4> "wifi and mobile broadband are already a big potential security risk" -- not if you use TLS

<comment><USER3> Wrong scenario. Black Hats can use it to repeatedly breach the physical security of an internal network. Plant a WiFi or mobile broadband relay, and you only have to physically be there the first time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Interesting idea, but one of the uses I have for a thumb drive is to store things when I _don't_ have access to wifi. If I have wifi then there are a myriad of other possibilities.</comment>


Predicting one of 2 characters you will randomly press - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/elsehow/aaronson-oracle <comment><USER2> Recent discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11824164](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11824164)

</comment><comment><USER3> For me it is pretty consistently 50% +/\- 5 even after a minute. It doesn't seem to work well if you repeat the same key a lot (i.e don't flip to often).

<comment><USER4> I got 52% after a good lot of keypresses (not sure exactly how many). I chose to not look at the screen at all during that time - I think that probably helps.

<comment><USER5> Mine started at 25% and worked it's way up to 54%. Which also involved me holding down keys for a few seconds. I'm not sure if it works or if Hacker New's user base is skewed towards people who are slightly better at being random. (or if that's cause by self reporting, would someone whose best was 80% want to come forward?)

Edit: Interesting tidbit: I pre-seeded at 100% by holding down F and it trended down to ~68% before I decided I shouldn't spend too much time on this. Maybe we didn't use it long enough?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I did something like this a long time ago in a little competition for beating others' rock paper scissors programs, except I used the other players' moves relative to my own (e.g. my program could catch on to the other player choosing the move that would beat my last move) as well as their current pattern of winning or losing.

</comment><comment><USER7> It works if you're trying to be random, however if you're trying to react and respond to its patterns you can win.

</comment><comment><USER8> So, I tried a simple python one-liner:

[os.urandom(1)[0] < 128 for x in xrange(0, 100)]

and typed 'd' for True and 'f' for False in the array, bringing the accuracy of the predictor down to 53%. Theoretically, I'm guessing doing it for large enough numbers should make it exactly 50%.

<comment><USER9> If it _doesn 't_ come down to 50% for sufficiently large numbers, you've found a break in your OS's urandom and someone is about to be famous!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Doesn't work from my smartphone. Sounds like a fun challenge though, would like to try.

<comment><USER11> I'm on OS X with Firefox 47.0.1 and it doesn't work for me either :(

<comment><USER12> I'm on OS X with Firefox 47.0.1 and it works fine. It doesn't display anything until the 6th keypress.

<comment><USER9> Doesn't work in Safari for me, but it does work in Chrome (after pressing keys six times).

<comment><USER12> Yeah, it uses this style function definition (ES6?) in a few places:

      document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => {

Safari doesn't support that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Is there, for a given k, an easy to remember sequence (easy to remember algorithm with little state) that has all the k-grams with the same frequency?

For k=1: 01 repeating

For k=2: 0011 repeating

For k=3: 00010111 repeating

<comment><USER14> They're called De Bruijn sequences[1], and there's an algorithm for constructing them. I'm not sure how easy it is to run in your head, though.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Bruijn_sequence#Algorithm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Bruijn_sequence#Algorithm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Very cool. Am getting ~50% accuracy so I'm glad to see my free will is still intact!

</comment><comment><USER16> 40%? Lame.</comment>


Show HN: A gem to log when code gets run - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/hstove/aqui

<comment><AUTHOR> I remember a thread on HN some time ago where people discussed the various log messages they'd write when debugging to see if code was executing properly. I usually just write things like `puts "here"` and it sounded like a lot of other people would write similarly mundane things or just smash their keyboard.

I made this gem so all I have to call is `aqui` and a more contextual log message is displayed. Screenshot:

[https://camo.githubusercontent.com/a492d7dc95ebf1c248c7537b7...](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/a492d7dc95ebf1c248c7537b7c32bfaf550eba60/687474703a2f2f692e696d6775722e636f6d2f4d31554c44394f2e706e67)</comment>


I think I just broke my radio. - <AUTHOR> http://yetanotherstartupblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-think-i-just-broke-my-radio.html DIY radio station, car radio hacking, using a common mobile device <comment><USER2> There is actually a company called Tunaverse (<http://tunaverse.com>) that is doing/working on this. You can stream any of your media files from your home computer to your phone or any other device with an internet connection.

I have no connection to this company other than I met one of the founders a year ago and he was telling me what they were working on. I haven't talked to him since and don't know how far along they have come, but their website is still up (just checked) and looks like they have the client running for Windows Mobile devices at this point.

</comment><comment><USER3> The hard part here is clearly not getting data into whatever audio player is available (ie. car radio), it's getting ubiquitous wireless in each of these devices, so that one does not need to carry around and plug in a device like the GPhone. Does anyone know if AT&T or any other wireless providers have any plans to go into this market? Obviously, tying a device to a particular network sucks because it locks you into that network, but I would be much more likely to pay for a monthly data plan if I could get a car radio that used the same connection to stream music!

I imagine the problem here might be licensing, but I'm not really knowledgeable enough to know.

</comment><comment><USER4> Is G1 really that cheap?

<comment><USER5> The $20/month is only for the data, I believe.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> old news is so exciting... done this w/ my iPhone since first day i had it

</comment><comment><USER7> Yeah, and when everyone starts doing this, the telcos are going to jack those data rates up so high they may as well be in orbit.

Of course, if someone can get them onside with this, you may have something.</comment>


220 Billion Lines of COBOL? BS - <AUTHOR> http://www.knowing.net/index.php/2009/08/10/220-billion-lines-of-cobol-bs/

<comment><USER2> 220 billion doesn't sound all that big to me. Let's say there are 100,000 firms that use Cobol, that would mean 2.2 million lines of code per firm. Since even a fairly trivial report coded in Cobol is easily 1000 lines (source: ran wc on my old Cobol directory), this would be the equivalent of about 2200 simple reports per firm. This is a very low number considering there is bound to be more complex transaction processing code, lots of (even more verbose) code generated by code generators, and the tendency to have lots of tweaked versions of the same program.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. My own corp still runs 8000 of these reports weekly, plus extracts, etc....

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I posted the following comment to this article (currently awaiting moderation):

You stepped right onto one of my pet-peeves, so as calmly as I can, I'd like to explain why the whole Y2K bug turned out to be a non-event: because a lot of people -- myself included -- spent months poring over countless lines of, yes, COBOL (among others), and writing in year-windowing functions and the like.

In 1999, I was working for a large, affluent public school district in the East Bay in California. We had a Unisys mainframe -- and to the best of my knowledge, they're still running most of their stuff on it -- that was responsible for their accounting, their finance, their payroll, and _all_ of their school operations.

If it only weighed in at a million lines of COBOL, I would be surprised.

And layered on top of that were, probably, tens of thousands of lines of WFL.

We spent months auditing (and patching) all of the functions in that systems.

When all was said and done, only a few unanticipated systems broke in the months following January 1, 2000.

However, had we not done all that work, I can assure you that nobody would have received a paycheck in January.

The people that always point to the end results of the Y2K bug as an example of unfounded hype bug me to no end. Have you even ever talked to someone that did Y2K work? I did, and it was not a picnic, and yes, a lot of things would have been broken if we hadn't done it. (Hell, there was even a critical patch for Sun DNS servers that had to be applied; I know this, because I applied it, and fought it with as it didn't work out quite right.)

As for 200 billion SLOC for COBOL ... yes, that seems a bit high, but I don't honestly think it's off by an order of magnitude. We were a little tiny system by lots of standards, and we were running easily a million lines of COBOL, and a huge chunk of it was custom code and in-house patches.

<comment><USER5> I think you're a bit backward on Y2K; instead of being down on those who correctly said that the hypsters were full of it, you should be irritated at the hypsters who were effectively claiming that you and the other programmers who patched the problems before they became problems were too incompetent to do your jobs.

<comment><USER4> That's not the sense I get in most discussions like this, although I hadn't thought of it that way before so it's possible that I'm letting my own biases come into play here.

The sense I get is that the Y2K bug was a non-issue to begin with -- the usual evidence for this being that there were very few problems following January 1 -- which I think really marginalizes the huge amount of extra effort that a lot of people put into making sure that it would be a non-issue.

_If_ legions of programmers hadn't done their jobs, and done them very well, then the hypsters probably wouldn't have been very far off the mark.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Honestly, Im pretty sure that for example all the Canadian Government payment stuff(so handing EI, pensions, and every other program that makes a payment to the public or other government entity) is written in COBOL and on top of that there are endless reporting tools and such written COBOL to report on such payments. I can't imagine that the canadian government is the only one to have done this.

I mean 220 Billion is a lot, but I can't imagine that the real number is that far off.

<comment><USER7> As a sanity check, there are 400,000 Cobol Programmers that have written on average 1,100,000 lines of code 50% of which is still in use today.

I think all of those numbers are extremely bloated. 100,000 * 250,000 * 10% might be possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I think 220 Billion is a highly inaccurate number as well, but I'm not sure if I agree with his assessment of the Y2K stuff.

Granted, it -was- overhyped (stock up on batteries, rice, haz mat suits, etc.) but there would have been fairly significant problems if the companies developing these systems didn't prepare. The possible effects were exaggerated, but I still think it's a better example of "crisis" management than mass delusion or panic.

<comment><USER9> Agreed. Lots of code would have failed without significant amounts of work. That almost nothing broke on the day is down to a lot of very hard work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I dunno, personal friends of mine have worked on COBOL code and I'm definitely NOT old enough to have been around during COBOL golden age.

Also, regarding Y2K, I imagine if power plants and such were not updated, we'd have been in a bit of trouble.

<comment><USER11> You don't write software for power plants in COBOL. COBOL is intedned for stuff like managing payrolls, not control engineering.

<comment><USER10> Ok then, financial institutions. I know a lot of the Irish Revenue legacy systems are in COBOL. Y2K could potentially have affected that too (though obviously nowhere near as drastically as a power plant).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Gartner who made this claim in _1997_ most probably knew what they were talking about. It is pointless to argue about old data, as if it were new.

</comment><comment><USER13> I suspect 220B is quite an exaggeration, but there may be a difference between the number of unique lines of COBOL and the total number of uniquely deployed source instances. I wonder how many 80's era third party apps there are that are installed on 1000 different mainframes around the world. A couple hundred thousand lines x 1000 machines puts a dent in the 220B number.</comment>


A short history of Bigfoot sightings and lore - <AUTHOR> https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/that-was-no-bear <comment><USER2> My dad and my uncle are staunch believers in a wild man sort of creature that lives out here in the remote San Juan mountains of southern Colorado. The stories they share are vague, but convincing. They grew up in these mountains, sleeping alone under the stars there throughout the '50s and '60s. Over the last couple of decades they have stories of things that they'd never experienced in their lives in the mountains. Screams. Destruction. Heart- pounding sounds and experiences. Now they quest for conclusive evidence and have yet to turn up any. It's hard to reconcile the lack of evidence with the ascribed authority of their cumulative mountaineering experience, much like what's described in this article.

<comment><USER3> random observation : mountain lion calls sound like screaming primates. maybe they at least sometimes heard that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I like to think that Bigfoot did exist at some point. There is fossil evidence of large upright walking apes in Asia (gigantopithecus) contemporary with early homo sapiens. Those creatures could have come to North America the same way humans did. When Europeans showed up, the indigenous humans were ravaged by Old World disease. It seems logical that any contact between humans and Bigfoot would have similar consequences. I could believe that some small populations survived long enough to inspire stories. If there are any left, I imagine they would be spread pretty thin. In any case, there are no verified bodies to study, so we are left with our imaginations.

<comment><USER5> Check out "Discovering Bigfoot" On Netflix. It's actually worth a watch.

<comment><USER5> Or listen to 1 of the over 450 episodes of the podcast "Sasquatch Chronicles", each of which contains 1 or more eye witness reports.

[http://sasquatchchronicles.com](http://sasquatchchronicles.com)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If in the Bay Area, there's a crazy little big foot museum run by a wildly eccentric chap who is great fun to talk to in Felton, just 10 minutes outside of Santa Cruz. It's just opposite Henry Cowell Redwood Statepark which is also well worth a visit, it's a fun afternoon to see both. Admission is free too. He also tracks supposed big foot sightings in the Santa Cruz mountains.

> > [https://www.bigfootdiscoveryproject.com/](https://www.bigfootdiscoveryproject.com/)

</comment><comment><USER7> I had a professor last semester who believed that Bigfoot (among other 'supernatural phenomena') is/are actually interdimensional beings 'operating in a frequency just out of our bandwidth', which was his justification for why 'video evidence' for them was always so poor and low detail/obscure. Of all things, I'm always surprised at how well bigfoot has captured people's imagination, for what would just seem to be a glorified gorilla

<comment><USER8> One of my favorite pastimes is listening and reading about paranormal/alien encounters and theories. I don't believe a lick of it, but I find it entertaining to hear theories that make you question reality, if just for a moment.

My favorite that I've heard thus far is that humans are a product of alien genetic engineering combining alien and primate DNA. This _supposedly_ involved multiple "steps" to get what we know as humans with protohumans (e.g. Neanderthals) being previous "steps" or attempts. Bigfoot is either one of those "steps" or attempts. I've also heard a theory that Bigfoot was a "happy accident" and carries out duties for the aliens.

I think the latter has come about as a way to explain some supposed connection between Bigfoot and the missing 411.

<comment><USER9> > One of my favorite pastimes is listening and reading about paranormal/alien > encounters and theories. I don't believe a lick of it, but I find it > entertaining to hear theories that make you question reality, if just for a > moment.

The thing is, when you think about it, reality is probably much stranger than you give it credit for. All we know about reality is what we perceive and infer from those perceptions... among which is quite a bit of knowledge about how fallible our ability to perceive reality actually is. Most of what you think you know is inferred from memory, which is notoriously unreliable, and/or relayed by others, which is at least as unreliable. And the kicker is, our understanding of what reality is relies on the assumption that reality is even understandable to us in the first place, which is not a given.

<comment><USER7> Which is why anecdotal evidence is useless, and study's of very large n's are the closet we'll get to a truth

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I see similarities between Bigfoot and fairy/elf mythology. Aside from the difference in size, these creatures live "beyond the edge" of human society, in the wild - which seems to have metaphorical significance, like beings "out there" in the collective unconscious. Just like in dreams, my view is that these beings are reflections of humanity, upon which we project latent fears and desires.

<comment><USER11> Like the Skunk Ape of Miami area and the Hodag of Wisconsin.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Back in the early 2000s there was a credible rumor circulating about a reclusive Bigfoot Easter Egg hidden in the outskirts of (Grand Theft Auto)San Andreas. This was the only time I've ever been excited about Bigfoot and for a sizeable subset of millennials this is the only credible Bigfoot lore we'll ever be exposed to. Considering that GTA San Andreas is the bestselling PS2 game ever made, Lapham's not mentioning it at all is lame.

[http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-hunt-for-one- of-g...](http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-hunt-for-one-of-gamings- most-mythical-creatures)

</comment><comment><USER13> The question I would ask Bigfoot believers is what about the droppings? An animal this big would eat an awful lot of food (and mostly plants, I would assume), and so it would leave a lot of droppings, like many pounds a day. And they would be distinctive, and have Bigfoot dna in them. So where are all the droppings?

</comment><comment><USER14> Also, for some sightings, it could be a hunter/poacher in a ghillie suit.

</comment><comment><USER15> I hate to say it, but I agree with Jane Goodall. Logically, I know Sasquatch doesn't exist. But I _want_ to believe it does.

</comment><comment><USER16> I just don't understand how people continue to believe that Bigfoot exists. The footage from the 1970s, once stabilized, looks embarrassingly like a man in a gorilla suit. Plus they admitted their faking it. The fact people still believe this makes me understand exactly how conspiracy theorists and anti- vaxxers believe what they do.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q60mSMmhTZU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q60mSMmhTZU)

<comment><USER5> Maybe you should do some research before calling bullsh*t. Here's part 1 of 6 of a 12 hour analysis of that film - [https://overcast.fm/+DkjFY8nxA](https://overcast.fm/+DkjFY8nxA)

The hosts go into it open minded, and come out believing it is real.

Along the way they speak to the surviving people who were actually there and involved, AND to a Hollywood film maker and creature FX person who was making high-end costumes in the 60s. He says the technology to make a costume that good at that time was not in existence. Furthermore, he says nobody has yet been able to produce a costume of similar quality.

Also, when you look into the proportions the human body, they don't match those of the being in the film.

Also, there are many indications in the film itself that it was an impromptu shoot.

AND the guy who claimed to have been the man in the monkey suit had a beef (motive) with the man who shot the film, AND the costume he described wearing doesn't match what appears on the film, AND the lengths of his limbs don't match those of the creature in the film.

And the other guy who was present when the film was shot is known to be highly respected and full of integrity. A real straight shooter.

Lastly, check out BFRO.org to see the thousands of sightings that continue to occur every year across the USA. Sure, some are probably bears... but some are up close and personal, and involve police, forest rangers, military, etc.

<comment><USER17> Fascinating how we still have yet to find a single carcass of a massive land mammal that lives close enough to civilization for there to be regular sightings.

Also strange that the video evidence is so spectacularly subpar that the most convincing of it requires significant anomaly hunting to persuade anyone.

<comment><USER18> The one argument I've heard to that is: how many dead bears or cougars are often stumbled upon? Turns out not a lot. Animals tend to find hidden placed to die and then nature can dispose and disperse of them pretty quickly. You will find dead deer but there are so many of them and they are heavily hunted. They're also kind of dumb and will die by running into a tree and things like that. The other thing that gives me pause to believe it's possible they're out there is that there have been times in recent history where we've apparently discovered entire large(ish) populations of gorillas when we had believed their numbers were lower.

I don't know. Not arguing bigfoot exists but I like the idea that even in modern times there's still stuff we can miss even though it feels like it would be impossible.

<comment><USER11> I actually stumbled upon a dead bear in Wisconsin a month ago, invalidating your thesis. I have pictures.

<comment><USER18> I didn't say nobody ever runs into dead bears. It's just not that common, even amongst folks who spend a lot of time in the bush.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ekranoplan - <AUTHOR> http://englishrussia.com/2010/03/12/ekranoplan/

<comment><USER2> Saw a documentary on it a while back.

Wings of Russia: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr8N0Z4Cl0U>

In flight <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Nu94khHoo>

<comment><USER3> And here's a pretty good clip with James May (of Top Gear) talking about them, and taking a ride in a modern one: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch2zs-7je_s>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Does any who's not just speculating know why these aren't used today for fast overseas transport between cities which aren't too far inland? The relevant wikipedia section is pretty lacking.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_vehicle#Advantage...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_vehicle#Advantages_and_disadvantages)

</comment><comment><USER5> One of these featured in the recent James Bond book, Devil May Care (decent book, not a patch on the originals).

Ground effect [1] is a really interesting phenomena.

1\. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_(aircraft)>

<comment><USER6> They also feature in _Missile Gap_ by Charlie Stross (HN cstross):

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_Gap>

<comment><USER7> Also featured briefly in the epilogue of _Zero History_ by William Gibson (Bigend buys one)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Similar Machines: [http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/05/ekranoplans- showcase...](http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/05/ekranoplans- showcase.html)

</comment><comment><USER9> Always fascinated by these. Are the large tubes torpedo tubes on top?

<comment><USER10> The angled ones on the body top yes, but they're not torpedoes they're ramjet anti-ship missiles: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-270_Moskit>

320kg warhead flying at mach 3. They're comparable to the Harpoon except carry 50% more payload and fly 3 times as fast.

On the sides of the cabin are the engines.

<comment><USER9> wow 320kg warhead. thats lots of explosive power, and speed... that is a heavy duty missile. Good luck to Phalanx and sea sparrow stopping a a half dozen of these (apparently china bought them)...

<comment><USER11> That's why we have AEGIS cruisers and destroyers. The entire concept was developed during the cold war specifically to counter this class (large supersonic sea-skimming missiles) of threats.

<comment><USER12> ITYM "large subsonic sea-skimming missiles". Moskit was specifically designed to punch through US Aegis defenses faster than they could intercept. While things have moved on, there's still some question over whether western naval defense missiles such as Standard or Aster can intercept a Moskit -- especially whatever version the Russians are using, as opposed to selling to Iran and China.

The MD-160 was intended (in the 1980s) to be a can-opener for US carrier battle groups -- able to close at 300 knots in nap of earth, evading detection, then launch six Moskits at once. (By way of comparison a Tu-22M or Tu-95 could only carry one or two Moskits.) Luckily the USSR ran out of money before they could build more than one of the things, which now sits in mothballs (despite various proposals to build more as, e.g., passenger ferries or high speed mobile disaster-relief hospitals).

<comment><USER9> They totally could have been a can opener. Imagine how many missiles it would take to disable or sink a carrier - short of a nuclear device. Battle groups are too sophisticated (if im not mistaken 2 anti-submarine destroyers). To actually find and takedown a carrier today requires huge effort and firepower.

>While things have moved on, there's still some question over whether western naval defense missiles such as Standard or Aster can intercept a Moskit

In April 2012, the French Navy successfully shot and downed an American GQM-163 Coyote target. The GQM-163 Coyote was simulating a sea-skimming supersonic anti-ship cruise missile traveling at speeds of Mach 2.5 (3000 km/h) with an altitude of less than 5 meters. The Aster 30 missile was fired by the Horizon class frigate Forbin (D620), also present during the shoot was Forbins sister ship Chevalier Paul (D621). The successful shooting represents the first time a European missile defence system has intercepted and destroyed a supersonic, sea-skimming "missile". The trial was described as a "complex operational scenario".

But, 2.5 mach and "test case" with your own hardware, can never know what a Russian missele is programmed to do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> i wonder how efficient it is

<comment><USER9> 50% more weight and 50% less fuel than cargo plane

<comment><USER13> So, dramatically less efficient than modern sea freight, while lacking the flexibility to deliver to inland airports that you get from air freight.

PS: Why did you answer your own question?

<comment><USER14> Because he found out the answer only after asking the original question, and answered it for anyone else who would have been curious.

<comment><USER9> exactly !

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> In a strange way, I miss the Cold War.</comment>


Show HN: Structure – IoT Developer Platform - <AUTHOR> https://www.getstructure.io/?ref=HackerNews <comment><USER2> Super interesting. Looks like you think there are a wide-range of potential use cases ([https://www.getstructure.io/use- cases](https://www.getstructure.io/use-cases)) but will be curious to see who the early adopters are... thoughts about who jump in first?

<comment><USER3> There's a lot of interest in manufacturing and logistics (warehouses and trucking). I think that's because these industries are under served for technology in general, and IoT is great fit for their a bunch of their use- cases.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> IMO the tutorial really made it. As startup devs, we get so many "try my app/platform/api" requests, but part of the reason I tried it was the smooth onboarding with a 5-minute intro. At first glance it felt to me like "Zapier for Things" plus a little more. The platform is surprisingly polished for a first release and I'm excited to see where it goes.

</comment><comment><USER5> Been playing with it for a couple days, really cool tool. I'm working on building the weather dashboard here: [https://docs.getstructure.io/getting- started/walkthrough/](https://docs.getstructure.io/getting- started/walkthrough/)

</comment><comment><USER6> Particularly liked the NodeRed like WorkFlow platform, which is intuitive, easy to use.

<comment><USER7> Great feedback. Glad you found it intuitive!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Looks awesome but there seems to be a problem with using Twitter in the workflows.

<comment><USER3> Yep, unfortunately so many people are signing up for the kit can Twitter has throttled our app, which isn't letting all the messages through. We're working with their support now. It's letting some through though, so keep trying!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Way cool! You should get this in high schools!

[https://www.getstructure.io/get-the- kit/instructions](https://www.getstructure.io/get-the-kit/instructions)

<comment><USER10> We're exploring that possibility. Interesting potential!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Great work folks, looks fantastic, can't wait to give it a whirl. :)

<comment><USER12> Thanks, we're excited to show it to the world.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is awesome. I might finally make that "Big Red Deploy Button" for the engineering team with this!

I see the Slack output, is there a good way to send a Slack command input to a workflow?

<comment><USER3> You can use the Webhook Trigger to do that pretty easily: [https://docs.getstructure.io/workflows/triggers/webhook/](https://docs.getstructure.io/workflows/triggers/webhook/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Messing with the workflows today, very simple, very clean. Super impressed!

</comment><comment><USER15> Very cool. Is there a getting started tutorial somewhere?

<comment><USER12> Absolutely. [https://docs.getstructure.io/getting- started/walkthrough/](https://docs.getstructure.io/getting- started/walkthrough/) There are also specific hardware guides as well.</comment></comment>


Web 3.D - The Market Potential of "Bits & Atoms" - <AUTHOR> http://replicatorinc.com/blog/2010/03/web-3-d-some-numbers-behind-bits-and-atoms/

<comment><USER2> Starting to trudge into this world myself, and I can definitely understand why there isn't a big rush of hackers into the production of physical goods. There are heaps of boring details to manage, supply issues to research, domain knowledge to learn, etc.

There is nothing intrinsically difficult about creating physical products, but you can liken to working with a very un-expressive programming language. You're spending a lot of time making very little progress, and it's very expensive to create prototypes as you go.

So it's slow. You don't get the same continual ego boost of seeing what you are building. And you can't hack it up over the weekend to the applause of your peers.

</comment><comment><USER3> I am fascinated by the promise of 3D printing/manufacturing, but have yet to find a good use to justify the much higher cost.</comment>


Avoiding Facial Recognition of the Future - <AUTHOR> http://www.itproportal.com/2012/01/04/avoiding-facial-recognition/#ixzz1iWJIK7uj <comment><USER2> I've been wondering about the social consequences of being on camera, and automatically recognizable for a while.

I've come to believe that we're about to see the end of revealing clothing, at least for women. After all, which woman wants to appear on "Paul Blart's Home Alone Stimulation" videotape, just because they dress stylishly or revealingly or just have a nice rack?

I'm surprised that more stuff like the "Splash Mountain" flashing shots hasn't appeared on the internet. You'd think that mall cops would share their "Best Daisy Dukes" (or whatever) tapes, and that eventually, some would leak.</comment>


Instagram makes it's News Feed more Advanced - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/15/filteredgram/ <comment><USER2> Does everybody misspell its?</comment>


Futuristic airless tire is 3D printed, won't go flat or need replacement - <AUTHOR> https://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/3d-printed-vision-tire-uses-computational-design-michelin.html <comment><USER2> 5 minutes driving on sand or mud or small gravel, and that tire will be ruined.

It also looks very expensive.</comment>


Le Monde on the Brink - <AUTHOR> http://www.mondaynote.com/2010/06/20/le-monde-on-the-brink

<comment><USER2> "In France, firing a printing plant employee is hugely expensive. The gent is paid €50,000 per year, works 32 hours per week and 164 days per year. Firing him costs about €466,000 – that's a French government estimate..."

When I had the unpleasant task of considering layoffs at a French subsidiary we used to budget about 2x annual salary for severance expenses. The 9x number quoted in the article is amazing if true... In those circumstances I would work very hard to avoid making full-time hires.

<comment><USER3> > In those circumstances I would work very hard to avoid making full-time > hires.

You'd think people would figure out that secondary effects exist sooner or later, but amazingly, they seem not to...

<comment><USER4> Actually France on the whole has figured it out. Contrary to the stereotype, France has relatively few fully unionised fields, and very low union membership. It is just a few fields, like printing, that still has archaic union regulation and rules still in effect.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "An excessive reliance on public subsidies which account for about 10% of the industry's entire revenue." I was shocked to find this out. More information here (not sure how reliable it is) <http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/DF_media-prt.shtml>

<comment><USER6> Interesting On The Media piece about the history and state of France's subsidies: <http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/01/30/05>

Most recently Sarkozy bought everyone turning 18 a newspaper subscription.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The problem is I don't consider "Le Monde" as a quality newspaper anymore: why would I buy it? What's its added value compared to information I cat get for free? It has a very serious tone but is in fact a very consensual newspaper (and usually gets really conservative as soon as elections approach; just look who is controlling it…). More concerning, it brings very few relevant in-depth analysis with historical context and involvement and doesn't differenciate itself enough from all the rest. I subscribe only to "Le Monde Diplomatique" which is the only newspaper which still brings some insights and reports going beyond just annotated events which that I can find anywhere.

</comment><comment><USER8>
        The core newsroom's reluctance to support the digital strategy.

This is interesting as my impression is much of the newspaper industries decline as a failure in business leadership and that the newsrooms had just been following orders or unable to effect change.

This suggests that newsrooms, Le Monde's at least, have been resisting the move to more online readership. I wonder what the reason is, there must be an entrenched section of old school editors and writers who still don't understand the online economy. Not something I expected of journalists.

<comment><USER9> I find this hard to believe as well, but for different reasons. I had an online subscription to Le Monde for years even though I wasn't even living in France. It was tiered but I thought it was extremely advanced in terms of features offered. In addition to web formats, I was also able to download PDF versions of the printed newspaper. It wasn't exactly cheap but I was happy to pay it. I only wish my local newspapers now were of that quality and had the same online services.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Here's the problem: almost all newspapers self-identify in a way that prevents any degree of substantial change of their core business. To them the thought of changing enough to survive in the modern, online, world is no different than the prospect of winking out of existence after running out of money, both appear to be death from their perspective.

This doesn't touch on the often numerous labor related legal straight jackets most big newspapers operate under. This combination explains why so many newspapers have simply continued operations unchanged until suddenly dying, in just about any other industry there would be a lot more innovation in play when so many papers are staring down near certain death in the next few years. Ultimately I think the end result is that the successor to the newspaper will not come from the newspaper industry but will sprout up from elsewhere.

<comment><USER11> _just about any other industry there would be a lot more innovation in play_

Oh, let's not be unfair, the newspapers aren't noticeably worse than primary education, secondary education, the automobile industry, legacy airlines, or the government at innovating.

<comment><USER6> Honestly, I think it is being unfair. This is not the usual story of some limber newcomers offering a better product for cheaper -- this is a monumental shift that upended an entire industry. This sort of thing doesn't happen very often.</comment></comment></comment>


Advertisers boycott YouTube after pedophiles swarm comments on children videos - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/technology/youtube-pedophiles.html <comment><USER2> The single most important decision YouTube could make to defuse this crisis would be to disable comments on all videos. Period. Permanently. If you want to be a social media site, you need to do the necessary curation. If that means spending serious money, so be it.</comment>


Working USB stick found in leopard seal's year-old frozen faeces - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/06/working-usb-stick-found-in-leopard-seals-year-old-frozen-faeces <comment><USER2> _> Leopard seal scat is valuable to scientists because it holds a wealth of information about what the Antarctic predators eat_

May it be that seals ate the owner of the usb-stick?

<comment><USER3> A favorite prey of leopard seals is penguins.

Oh, no... _Tux?!_</comment></comment>


"Conquer English to Make China Stronger!" - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/28/080428fa_fact_osnos <comment><USER2> One could probably make a career out of traveling to the latest emerging world power every few years.

In the 90s, going to Japan to teach English was a huge deal. Everyone seemed willing to pay lots of money to learn English.

Now China. Next...?

</comment><comment><USER3> I just want to note: what he's really selling, is not english education, but self-esteem.

If you really think about it, it's the same thing that sites like facebook and myspace are selling too .. only looks like Li Yang is selling it way better.

I wonder what would be the equivalent product in the US market? Hmm.

</comment><comment><USER4> Love the shouting. Hilarious:

"made his name on an E.S.L. technique that one Chinese newspaper called English as a Shouted Language. Shouting, Li argues, is the way to unleash your "international muscles." Shouting is the foreign-language secret that just might change your life."

</comment><comment><USER5> ""He turned toward the assembled employees and switched to Chinese: "The secret of success is to have them continuously paying—that's the conclusion I've reached." Then back to English: "How can we make them pay again and again and again?"""

</comment><comment><USER6> Someone should do something similar in the U.S. for people to learn Mandarin.

<comment><USER7> <http://chinesepod.com>

<comment><USER8> I knew someone with your username back in the glory days of the web 1.0, if you by chance are Trevor Gehman, email me, I'd like to say hi.

<comment><USER9> How about we generalize the approach and people put some contact information in their profiles?

<comment><USER8> A checkbox for make viewable next to email addresses would go a long way

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Don't they mean Engrish?</comment>


While42 - French Engineers Alumni Network http://www.while42.org/ - <AUTHOR> http://www.while42.org/

<comment><USER2> All around the globe french engineers are recognized for their skills, but they suffer from a lack of real alumni associations. So we're building one.

</comment><comment><USER3> "0\. French only All while42 members are french."

Why the homepage is in English by default then?

</comment><comment><USER4> Find the nearest city on www.while42.org !

</comment><comment><USER5> Hello, any1 in Singapore? :)

</comment><comment><USER6> We really got the game !</comment>


End Secret Laws - <AUTHOR> http://endsecretlaws.us/ <comment><USER2> I don't understand. In the United States, there are no secret laws, only secret surveillance. There is a distinction.

</comment><comment><USER3> Why Barack Obama?</comment>


Opensource linear algebra text book. - <AUTHOR> http://linear.ups.edu/download/fcla-electric-2.12.pdf

<comment><USER2> Link to overview, for those who prefer to know what it is without/before bumping up against a PDF.

<http://linear.ups.edu/></comment>


Why public libraries should follow Chicago's lead and build maker labs - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2013/07/08/why-public-libraries-should-follow-chicagos-lead-and-build-maker-labs/ <comment><USER2> I live in Chicago and I have to say that the Harold Washington Library is one of the few things I'm extremely proud of. I will definitely go check this out next time and I hope it spurs more Chicagoans to explore this treasure located in the heart of the city.

</comment><comment><USER3> In principal, this is a fantastic idea.

In practice, sharing a lab is an uphill struggle when the people you share it with are your coworkers/fellow students. When they're just people that wandered in off the street, I could imagine that without very careful control of the situation the place will end up with piles of crap and absolutely no tools.

I suppose it completely depends what type of lab they've built. I hope this idea spreads (because I would like to have access to this kind of resource), and I hope it works!

</comment><comment><USER4> We're getting one of these in the public library in Downtown Orlando, FL ... looking forward to when it opens :)

[http://tic.ocls.info/](http://tic.ocls.info/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Title:

> Why public libraries should follow Chicago's lead and build maker labs

Article summary (from the article):

> The lab will operate through the end of the year and offer 3D printers, > laser cutters, a milling machine, a vinyl cutter and software.

Justification of the title (i.e., why libraries should build maker labs), as far as I can see, after reading the article:

> resources like Chicago's maker lab will bring in people who might have never > had the chance to build something otherwise.

My summary:

Why libraries should build maker labs: Because the author likes them.

</comment><comment><USER6> Chattanooga has one as well, and a really cool startup incubator, but we have no hackerspace. There should be a daily time lapse gif soon.

[http://4thfloor.chattlibrary.org/content/about-public- librar...](http://4thfloor.chattlibrary.org/content/about-public-librarys- makerbot)

[http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/10/the- un...](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/10/the-unusual- startup-incubator-that-could-only-exist-in-chattanooga/247498/)

</comment><comment><USER7> The library in my town (pop. < 5,000) has a reasonably well appointed maker lab.

[http://fflib.org/learn/make/ffl-creation-lab/creation-lab- in...](http://fflib.org/learn/make/ffl-creation-lab/creation-lab-inventory)

I've yet to make use of it... but there a few projects I'd like to try out when I have the time.

<comment><USER8> I believe Fayetteville, NY was the first public library in the country. (At least they made that claim).

 __EDIT __The first to _have_ a maker's lab.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> As much as I like libraries and the services they provide, (books, internet, study and meeting spaces), I don't think this is a good match.

As a member and former member of various robot and ham radio groups, shared spaces are a pain to run. They work much better as a paid coop where everyone has skin/money in the game.

</comment><comment><USER10> Okay, why? The title says "Why...", but the author does not offer us a "why".

And I don't necessarily disagree, but I was just hoping for an argument as to 'why', as the title promissed.

</comment><comment><USER11> All the classes are pretty much full, they don't have very good infrastructure but I will camp out there if that is what it will take for me to use a 3-D printer to make an action figure.

</comment><comment><USER12> I love these kind of "articles." I wonder who gigaom has money riding on?</comment>


Ask HN: Any free/open source simple employee time tracking software? - <AUTHOR> Hello,
I am looking for solution something like toggl.com which is either free or open source. Employee can sign in and add a note what they will work on.
And when they logout then also they can add a note. thats it. <comment><USER2> [https://github.com/toggl/toggldesktop](https://github.com/toggl/toggldesktop)</comment>


Foetus 18 Weeks: Lennart Nilsson's prenatal photography - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/nov/18/foetus-images-lennart-nilsson-photojournalist <comment><USER2> > Nilsson was only able to photograph one living foetus, though, using an > endoscopic camera that travelled into a womb.

How was this approved? Inserting an endoscope into the uterus (presumably through the cervix) is likely pretty uncomfortable to the mother and has a decent risk of causing infection or loss of pregnancy and there is no offsetting medical benefit to either the mother or the fetus.

<comment><USER3> From the article in the same paragraph:

> All the other images were either miscarried or terminated pregnancies.

Did his imaging cause these?

<comment><USER4> It does not appear so. The article says the hospital called him whenever there was a fetus available and that he had to complete his photography within a few hours. He had an aquarium-like tank at the hospital to suspend the deceased fetus in to take the pictures, which is why they look like they are floating.

The single image taken in utero may have been during a procedure. The article's phrasing doesn't make it sound like it was done primarily so he could have a picture.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's interesting to see copyright asserted in order to prevent an image from being politicized.

It provides an interesting intersection between censorship and copyright.

So imagine instead this was a different image used for a different politics: a picture of police beating a protestor in some place and let's say it would be an iconic image, but the photographer asserts rights in order to not create more chaos and violence.... [it could be Hong Kong, east Jerusalem, Saint Louis, Santiago,]

<comment><USER6> I'm not sure that'd even be effective. It seems like you'd have a pretty strong case for fair use defense in the US as the use could be commentary/criticism or even as "education".

There are no guarantees when it comes to fair use protections, but it'd certainly be hard to say that the photographer is losing money because people interested in his work are flocking to view protest signs or anti-abortion pamphlets.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lennart_Nilsson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lennart_Nilsson)

He's very well-known (and celebrated) here in Sweden. His photos have been turned into multiple popular coffee-table-style photo books here. I think we had one of them in my home when I grew up.

And yes, Sweden allows abortions since 1938. And no, we don't tend to conflate these two things.

<comment><USER8> As a Swedish expat, I would like to state that history around abortion is more complicated than "allowed since 1938". Here is the first paragraph from Wikipedia from the article on abortion in Sweden [1] and it summarises things very well:

"Abortion in Sweden was first legislated by the Abortion Act of 1938. This stated that an abortion could be legally performed in Sweden upon medical, humanitarian, or eugenical grounds. That is, if the pregnancy constituted a serious threat to the woman's life, if she had been impregnated by rape, or if there was a considerable chance that any serious condition might be inherited by her child, she could request an abortion. The law was later augmented in 1946 to include socio-medical grounds and again in 1963 to include the risk of serious fetal damage. A committee investigated whether these conditions were met in each individual case and, as a result of this prolonged process, abortion was often not granted until the middle of the second trimester. As such, a new law was created in 1974, stating that the choice of an abortion is entirely up to the woman until the end of the eighteenth week."

[1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Sweden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Sweden)

Thus "free" abortion was not introduced in Sweden until 1974 and at least as late as the 60s proponents of more liberal legislation organised trips to Poland where the laws were less restrictive [2] (the best reference I could find in English, here is a more opinionated one in Swedish [3]). The great irony of course is that today Polish women may seek to make the trip in reverse given the recent political changes in Poland.

[2]: [https://www.thelocal.se/20180524/the-history-of-legal- aborti...](https://www.thelocal.se/20180524/the-history-of-legal-abortion-in- sweden-liberal-laws)

[3]: [https://www.rfsu.se/vad-vi-gor/i-sverige/fragor-vi-jobbar- me...](https://www.rfsu.se/vad-vi-gor/i-sverige/fragor-vi-jobbar-med/ratten- till-abort/abortrattens-historia/60-talet-riskera-fangelse-for-abort-i-polen/)

<comment><USER7> That's a great summary, thank you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I remember seeing those phottos as a child being very confused about the stars on the background. Thinking WHAT'S INSIDE A GIRL?

</comment><comment><USER10> I've never heard a pregnant woman refer to her unborn child as "my foetus".

<comment><USER11> As we already know, the differentiation between "foetus" vs. "unborn child" has significant political implications vis-a-vis the degree of social acceptability and legal codification of a woman's individual power and control over her own body.

<comment><USER10> I've no problem with women having control over their bodies, and legalised abortion spares us the horror of backstreet alternatives. It needs to be there. But let's also be clear: if there weren't something horrific about abortion there would be no need for suppression of the truth via euphemism and beyond (showing photographs of abortion in public in the UK can get you jailed).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> It would be really interesting to know who is the individual in the photos. They would be 54yo by now! (1965 is the year I saw in the article).

</comment><comment><USER13> It would be an interesting experiment, I think, to show some research subjects these pictures and others that represent different stages of fetal development, but without the weeks listed, and have them guess how many weeks old the fetus is.

Then see whether their accuracy correlates with other things -- level of education, opinion about the legality of abortion, etc.

<comment><USER14> Why? I can't see much of an upside there compared to the downsides of being used by both sides of the abortion debate as fuel for the fire.

<comment><USER15> The upside is to score points against your political rivals and point at how ignorant those people in the outgroup are.

<comment><USER16> In case the rivals don't base their position on how it looks, the score may play against itself.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


A filesharing parable - <AUTHOR> http://zenbullets.com/blog/?p=525

<comment><USER2> Sigh. If every music pirate spent hundreds annually on concerts and impulse- bought mp3s, maybe pirating wouldn't be a problem. I don't know a single person like Barry though. Let me tell you about real people I know, not made up ones. The names are changed to protect the innocent.

First, you have Sal. Sal has an iPod loaded with a couple thousands songs that he got from a friend. None of them were obtained legally. As far as I can tell, Sal doesn't listen to music any other way. Period. He listens to the iPod on shuffle 24/7 and spends not a penny on the artists which are on the iPod.

Next is Matt. Matt is a huge music fan and spends hours finding cool new music. But as far as I can tell, Matt has never spent a penny on music in his life. Matt will download an artist's entire collection and listen to it for years without ever dreaming of buying something from them. Besides, most of the bands Matt listens to don't tour widely enough to come to town. Surely if you're listening to indie artists from Portland and you live in D.C., you aren't supporting them by going to concerts.

The story of Barry, the good pirate who downloads music just to find what he likes so he can pay money for it, is just that, a story. It sounds nice, but it isn't what I've seen in the majority of music pirates.

Besides which, if your intent is just to discover new artists, you can do that legally in numerous ways. There are online radios like Pandora and Jango which let you hear lots of music. There are free previews on every music store I know of. There are official YouTube stations from the artists or record labels. There are artist websites, which almost always have an embedded player playing their music. There is MySpace, which most artists are on, even though MySpace sucks in general. There are sites like CDBaby which offer substantially longer previews (sometimes up to 2 minutes) and have indie artists and pay the artists better. There is Magnatune, which lets you listen to entire albums as a preview.

Also, the argument about not going to stores is crap. A cover and blurb? Is there a music store in the world that doesn't let you preview CDs in some way or another?

In fact, the whole "but copyright will prevail" paragraph is crap. No one is trying to stop impulse buying of mp3s. _Buying_ of mp3s is what record labels want. No one is trying to stop anyone from reading about artists online. And unrelated to my main point, has the author ever heard of film trailers?

The author creates a false dichotomy in artists as well: favorite artists and artists whose music is crap. What about artists that you listen to every once in a while but aren't favorites? Should you support them or is it OK to pirate their music? I'll grant you that if you listen to an album only once, you aren't committing a huge sin in not paying for it, but what if you listen to it 5 times? 10? 20? When do you have to pay for it?

This is getting very disjointed, but there are also plenty of sites (or there used to be at least) where you can pay for an unlimited amount of listening, but pirates still won't use them. If they're honestly just trying to discover cool new music, why not pay a small fee for that right? You could also use satellite radio for the same purpose. Numerous business models for music have been tried, and piracy hasn't been affected at all. CDs have been reduced in price almost 50% from 10 years ago, and piracy hasn't been affected. Doesn't this suggest piracy isn't just about a bad business model?

As far as I can tell, piracy is about this: people see no reason to pay for something when they can get away with not paying for it. This is the actual real-life use of piracy that I have seen hundreds of times. This is what people were doing when I was in school and they would spend hours on school computers on P2P networks. This is what Sal and Matt are doing.</comment>


Interview with German Ventilator Manufacturer - <AUTHOR> https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-ventilator-manufacturer-absolutely-mission-impossible-a-549d1e18-8c21-45f1-846f-cf5ca254b008 <comment><USER2> Some key statements:

"Dräger: In Europe, the number of intensive-care beds per capita is very unequally distributed. In Italy, it is three times lower than here. In England, five times lower. The challenge in England will be greater than in Spain. And the situation in the U.S. is very alarming. The reporting system there is also underdeveloped."

<comment><USER3> I've wondered about this for a little while. Why does Germany have five times as many ICU beds than England? Until now, I've never heard a suggestion that England had fewer ICU beds than it needed generally, and assuming England and Germany use beds at the same general capacity, why on earth is Germany running five times more beds that it generally needs? (please don't answer "for a case like this" unless you have some hard evidence)

<comment><USER4> That doesn't surprise me culturally. I lived in Germany for a couple of years, and the deference to _" rules that matter"_ was completely different than my US experience. Even for trivial stuff like waiting in line/queues. The Germans were much more literal in following the rules, versus my US and UK peers.

<comment><USER5> Which funnily contradicts my experience as a German in the US (interesting how cultural perception differs). I've been told in very harsh words to go in line in the US several times, once in a line for the IKEA ferry to Manhattan where I was threatened to be left behind if I do not go to the back of the line. Once in the Metropolitan museum in NYC when I skipped the ropes of an empty queue and was told to go back and follow the route through the zigzag ropes although noone was there.

Another anecdote, whenever I wanted something "unusual" I was denied, and the person "in charge" needed to ask a supervisor. E.g. in an (upscale) hotel I wanted to see a different room for my next stay, took some time to ask different supervisors but in the end it was "impossible". In Germany the person at the reception desk would decide if this is possible or not and most like show me a room.

(Yes all anecdotal and colored by my cultural perception).

<comment><USER4> Your frustration with US rules, to me, only emphasizes my point. You want the rules to work. Versus the US born/bred idea that they never will. Flippant, I know, but that's my observation.

It's also completly possibile that you're an outlier German that is frustrated with the current rules. For sure, I've seen that in spades. it isn't the mainstream though.

<comment><USER6> Different cultures play loose with different rules. I believe that for every two countries, you can find one rule that exist in both but are routinely ignored in one but religiously followed in the other and another where it is exactly reversed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It would be nice if we could at least provide everybody with simple surgical masks. It would surely help flatten the curve a lot if we could make masks in public mandatory. As far as I understand it those are basically just paper and a nose clip. They should be very simple to mass manufacture.

<comment><USER8> The main problem I see regarding masks is, besides price, distribution. Now that Chinese manufacturers are running again, they are producing 24/7\. Sure prices are way higher than before. But the masks are there.

Problem is, Chinese suppliers sell FOB, meaning export cleared delivered to a (air)port terminal in China. Customers in Germany want to buy DDP (import cleared and delivered a specified location in Germany). There you have a structural problem. One that would be easy to overcome, if it wasn't product liability. The importer of record takes product liability in case the manufacturer is outside the EU. Good luck getting that insured (I tried). Ultimately, it will get sorted out.

The easiest way to get supplies going would be if the government did these two things:

\- grant interest free loans for these products to allow importers to pay suppliers upfront (that's how this business works) for government orders

\- take the product liability risk for products wutyh the proper (paper) certification

That would allow a lot of people to get this stuff. Rigjtt now it is a pain the ass.

<comment><USER9> My concern is the rush to acquire PPE, rules be damned, a decent amount of counterfeit masks will make it into circulation, and will provide a false sense of security.

<comment><USER10> I bet someone could develop a simple mask test everyone could even do at home.

(Let's present solutions, HN. Don't just tell people things won't work.)

<comment><USER11> There are plenty of tutorials on how to make something like a surgery mask at home using basic sewing stuff or even oven paper.

These help with droplets and with reducing face touching.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Bit of an aside, but Dräger is a fascinating company. Aside from their core medical devices, serious scuba divers know them for their rebreathers, which collect, scrub and reuse the air you breathe, instead of just venting it out like typical scuba regulators. Rebreathers are notoriously expensive, fiddly and dangerous, because there are all sorts of ways things can go wrong if the gas mix isn't just right, but Dräger's kit is the gold standard.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebreather](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebreather)

</comment><comment><USER13> "I spoke with Daimler over the weekend. They would also like to help. But it's unfortunately not so simple..."

It would be interesting to hear more precisely why. We've heard more than a few well-respected industrialists essentially saying "Scaling up ventilator production ? How hard could it be?"

Edit. Of course I am not suggesting that car assembly lines are suitable to build ventilator parts. That's clearly not what Daimler suggested either. The question is 'what are the actual bottlenecks to ventilator production?', and nobody seems to really be willing or able to say.

<comment><USER14> We also regularly hear (otherwise very sensible) software engineers saying stuff like "Clone twitter? How hard could it be?". It's not very hard to see how manufacturing life-saving medical equipment in a rush without proper testing could go catastrophically wrong. Even if you get known-good schematics from another company, retooling (say) a car production line to make something else needs a lot of planning to make sure all the supply lines and trained workers are in place.

<comment><USER15> That analogy is only partially accurate. For instance, injection molding machines are pretty flexible these days, parts are almost exclusively drawn in CAD and molds are commonly cut with EDM. Every injection molding house has to have the ability to maintain those molds too. So if you wanted auto manufacturers (or more likely one of their suppliers) to produce a plastic part, it could almost be hands off. Send them the CAD files and specifications, produce a short run with heavy QA and once they're started, you can almost have as many parts as you need.

Modern cars have such a huge variety of parts with varying materials and characteristics that I'd guess almost all the ventilator parts could be out- sourced. I don't know enough to say what the specialized skills or parts could be but let the ventilator manufacturers build those, do final assembly and QA and you'd at least increase production to some degree. My guess is that the quoted manufacturer has ramped up their existing parts manufacture beyond their ability to do final assembly were Daimler to provide more parts.

<comment><USER16> You are assuming (edit: actually you aren't, see below) that the car manufacturers are producing these parts themselves. It is a _lot_ more complicated for Daimler to produce plastic parts for ventilators (for example) if small plastic parts in Daimler cars have been produced in China for the last 25 years and delivered just-in-time to the assembly line in Stuttgart.

<comment><USER15> "(or more likely one of their suppliers)"

I don't think I was assuming that ... but your point is valid. Certain car parts have indeed been the same for a long period of time. You'd certainly want to avoid the suppliers that are resistant to change or that have historically taken many iterations to get to the point where they can produce 10s and 100s of millions consistently. There are however manufacturers that specialize in smaller runs and more precision (two within 20 minutes of where I type this which is NOT considered a traditional manufacturing area). I'd be willing to bet those managing the supply chain for the car companies know exactly which type of company is which (where do their engineering departments have short-run prototypes made?)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> "What are the lessons to be learned from this crisis?

Dräger: It shows that common sense is more important than we all thought. This situation is so new and complicated that the problems can only be solved by people who carefully weigh their decisions. Artificial intelligence, which everyone has been talking so much about recently, isn't much help at the moment."

</comment><comment><USER15> "Before we invest too much thought into this, we should focus on getting devices that are sitting around in a basement somewhere back into working order."

I'm mechanically and electrically handy but don't have a basement full of ventilators. I'm going to send an email to my local hospital ... we'll see how that goes. Anyone have know where else to find ventilators that need to be serviced?

<comment><USER7> Vets, dental surgeons, people with old CPAP machines.

<comment><USER18> If you're interested in the complexities associated with retrofitting CPAP machines, I've written a couple of articles about it:

[https://blog.plan99.net/cpap-for- covid-d47886bf978c](https://blog.plan99.net/cpap-for-covid-d47886bf978c)

[https://blog.plan99.net/more-cpap-for- covid-b6911f806c89](https://blog.plan99.net/more-cpap-for-covid-b6911f806c89)

The primary difficulties are establishing medical consensus on what kind of pressure therapy is best (continuous vs bi-level) because that affects the availability of machines a lot and there's some disagreement. Secondary is how to stop patients on CPAP machines spraying virus into the air through the masks, however, at least one CPAP machine manufacturer thinks that concern is actually overblown and points to a study showing CPAP masks don't aerosolise to the extent current medical consensus seems to think.

Something very clear is that doctors are still figuring out treatment for this and there's some disagreement over what the right way to do things is. Disturbingly it may be that current medical consensus makes things worse for COVID-19 patients rather than better i.e. bi-level pressure therapy hurts the lungs in that state rather than helps (perhaps contributing to a high death rate?).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I love the complete lack of bullshit in this article. Everything I read about this crisis seems to be full of hedging, massaging, unquestioned vagaries and coddling of sources. Here, it just straight to the point with a knowledgeable source.

<comment><USER20> Agreed. My favorite quote:

" It shows that common sense is more important than we all thought. This situation is so new and complicated that the problems can only be solved by people who carefully weigh their decisions. Artificial intelligence, which everyone has been talking so much about recently, isn't much help at the moment."

I want to work for this guy!

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Home made masks are not as good as professional masks, but they have some efficiency (> 70%).

[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258525804_Testing_t...](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258525804_Testing_the_Efficacy_of_Homemade_Masks_Would_They_Protect_in_an_Influenza_Pandemic)

<comment><USER22> I read somewhere that it could be dangerous to wear one when you're infected, because then the virii have a much bigger chance to be inhaled again and get deeper into the lung.

Is this true?

<comment><USER23> There are studies out there on the use of cloth masks vs medical ones [0].

Tho it should be noted that both, cloth and surgical masks, are mostly worn to protect others from accidental discharge by the wearer.

So if you the wearer wants to protect themselves, then a respirator is actually needed. But respirators should be prioritized for at risk-groups who wouldn't survive infection or work with infected people.

The non-respirator masks are mostly to reign in the spread by people who could be infected without symptoms yet or as the "we got nothing else" option.

[0] [https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/4/e006577](https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/4/e006577)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Perhaps intravenous oxygen supply could be a way to treat those who are't getting a ventilator due to shortages?

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27910706](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27910706)

[https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/247295](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/247295)

Not a physician, but sounds like a more rapidly scalable method - if it works.

<comment><USER25> "This is a short-term oxygen substitute – a way to safely inject oxygen gas to support patients during a critical few minutes,"

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> There are already several simplified ventilator projects in the works:

[https://www.corovent.com/](https://www.corovent.com/) [https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.24.20042234v...](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.24.20042234v1) ...

<comment><USER27> So, they have a prototype and are ready to produce 500. Impressive. And it looks like that each and every country is now designing and producing their own ventilator. Also, a lot of them outsourcing the design which is great. In unfortunate events people come together and do great stuff!

<comment><USER26> Right, they are also flying the parts and the people around in small passenger planes to speed up deliveries, and to keep key people from getting infected because of unnecessary travel. It's quite a project.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I hear GM and now Daimler are all offering to help. How easy are these to manufacture? Also setting up the manufacturing plant takes time doesn't it? All these companies make it seem like it's trivial to create the infrastructure needed to manufacture them in bulk. Or does auto manufacturers somehow have the equipment to do this already? Is that the case?

<comment><USER29> Cars are many orders of magnitude more complex than ventilators so it's not unimaginable. A ventilator is basically a motor/small turbine connected to a few sensors and air filters, all linked together with some fairly sophisticated software. The software can obviously be 'manufactured' at infinite speed. That leaves an assembly of pipes, valves and flow sensors - but only a few. Especially if you customise the machine to only what COVID-19 patients need and don't go general purpose, it can be done.

<comment><USER28> Should still months to create the setup right? I see that it's stated than not having any but it doesn't serve the immediate need.

<comment><USER29> Probably not, no. Obviously if you want a machine as slick as the leading brands then yes, but nobody is requiring that.</comment></comment></comment></comment>